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Help Coming from iPhone - a few questions!

Si6776

Newbie
Sep 28, 2014
14
0
UK
Hi Folks

I've just put a tentative toe in the Android waters, after being an iPhone user for the past 5 years. To be truthful, I'm finding it a little difficult making the change, and have a few questions:

1. I've spent hours and hours trying to get the phone to sync nicely with Outlook on my PC. This used to be a simple task with iTunes, but now seems overly convoluted. I don't want to use Google Calenders, MS Exchange, or sign into anything - I just want my Outlook calender on my phone. The first time I used HTC Sync Manager, it did move my Outlook calender to the phone, but in doing so, also wiped my Outlook data off my PC! After my initial panic, as there seems to be no way to sync 'back' with HTC SM, I managed to restore my calendar from a backup. I've since used My Phone Explorer, which at least has the option of directional syncing, but at first I ended up with duplicate entries all over the place. After sorting out a right mess, I'm now back to where I want to be (but am frightened to sync calendars again!), however, I still have an issue with Tasks, which are synced with Outlook, but I can't see them on my stock HTC Calendar, and they don't appear in the Tasks app either. How can I view these tasks?

2. I'd like to be able to remove the Three boot animation on startup and shutdown. I can see what I think is the zip file in My Phone Explorer, but don't want to mess things up by deleting or editing it. As far as I know, my phone isn't rooted, and I don't really want to go down that road, or the road of custom roms. Is there a simple but safe way to remove the boot animation? What if I just deleted the file in \System storage\system\customize\resource\H3GUK_bootanimation.zip?

3. I can't seem to get music to stream via Bluetooth to my Ford car audio. The phone is paired, but music still just plays through the phone speakers.

4. Also, on the subject of Bluetooth, I have a Yamaha music system at home, which the HTC One M8 will stream to, but the Bluetooth on the phone seems to be locked 'On' to the Yamaha, even when the Yamaha is switched off. With my iPhone, the Bluetooth deactivated when the connected device was switched off, or disconnected from Bluetooth. Is there any way to get the HTC to do that, as I don't want to run the battery down with an active Bluetooth connection, when it's not actually in use.

I'm sure I will have more questions soon, but thanks in advance for any advice. :)

Simon.
 
And now something else. I've been searching for hours for this, but still haven't found a basic answer.

If I go to a website, then click the Menu > + button, I have an option to add the page to my Homescreen. That's great, and it produces the nice website favicon, rather than the stock Bookmarks icon.

The problem is, I want to rename that icon, because it just says 'Unread Posts' rather than the website name. Holding the icon doesn't give that option. I've been trying to find out where the icons are stored, so I can perhaps edit the name that way - does anyone know? Where is 'launcher data'? I don't want to install a third party launcher just for that - surely there's a easier way?
 
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Regarding the boot animation, without root access I don't think you would be able to delete it anyway. You may even need S-Off to do it but I can't be fully sure of that.

If I was you I wouldn't go deleting anything in the root folders, it's probably not gonna be healthy for your phone.

Unsure why you seem to be having Bluetooth problems tbh, maybe someone will be able to pipe up about that :)

I've just had a go at adding bookmarks to my homepage and both of them used the websites name (Google and another forum I use). Although I couldn't figure out a way to edit the name of the icon.
 
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Found one way for you to have custom Internet icons but gotta jump through a few hoops.

Find your Web page and add it as a bookmark.
Download Desktop Visualiser from the app store.
Add a widget, choose the Desktop Visualiser 1x1 widget.
Click on the icon which with take you to the options. The top option allows you to add a picture, icon, whatever you wish.
The next box allows you to choose your action. Click on it and click others, bookmarks should then be there and choose your book mark.
Once that is done choose the name you would like and add colour or highlights when it's pressed :thumb:
 
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Regarding the boot animation, without root access I don't think you would be able to delete it anyway. You may even need S-Off to do it but I can't be fully sure of that.

Yeah, you lost me with S-Off. Not an Android kid, I'm afraid.
red-face.gif


If I was you I wouldn't go deleting anything in the root folders, it's probably not gonna be healthy for your phone.
Yes, I figured that - the worry being, I might not then be able to start the phone again in order to rectify it.

Unsure why you seem to be having Bluetooth problems tbh, maybe someone will be able to pipe up about that :)
It's not that BT doesn't work, at least with the Yamaha - it's just that I don't particularly want to have to keep manually turning it on and off, which it seems I would have to - is this normal? I'll try again with the Ford audio tomorrow. It's a 2012 Galaxy, so I would have thought the stereo would do BT streaming, as it does handsfree for the phone OK.

I've just had a go at adding bookmarks to my homepage and both of them used the websites name (Google and another forum I use). Although I couldn't figure out a way to edit the name of the icon.
Yes, I'm probably being difficult there. The pages I want are the Unread Posts pages of a couple of forums I run, so I guess it takes the page title as the site name. I just expected to be able to change it without too much of a drama, like you can on the iPhone. :)
 
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Found one way for you to have custom Internet icons but gotta jump through a few hoops.

Find your Web page and add it as a bookmark.
Download Desktop Visualiser from the app store.
Add a widget, choose the Desktop Visualiser 1x1 widget.
Click on the icon which with take you to the options. The top option allows you to add a picture, icon, whatever you wish.
The next box allows you to choose your action. Click on it and click others, bookmarks should then be there and choose your book mark.
Once that is done choose the name you would like and add colour or highlights when it's pressed :thumb:

OK, cheers! I think that's probably a project for another day, but I'll let you know how I get on. I'm just wondering how I can save the favicons as icons? Or can I use images from my PC?
 
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Yeah, you lost me with S-Off. Not an Android kid, I'm afraid.
red-face.gif
Tbh I'm not very good at explaining it myself. If you do go down that route then best reading up on unlocking the bootloader, rooting and S-Off. All are different to each other and when they are all at your desired state (unlocked, rooted and off) then it opens a whole world of customising and control :thumb:

It's not that BT doesn't work, at least with the Yamaha - it's just that I don't particularly want to have to keep manually turning it on and off, which it seems I would have to - is this normal? I'll try again with the Ford audio tomorrow. It's a 2012 Galaxy, so I would have thought the stereo would do BT streaming, as it does handsfree for the phone OK.
Again I'm not perfect for this as I use Bluetooth in my car and turn the Bluetooth on and off as I need it. I find some apps continue playing playing after I've turned my car off and some don't, so it could be in the coding of the app itself.

Yes, I'm probably being difficult there. The pages I want are the Unread Posts pages of a couple of forums I run, so I guess it takes the page title as the site name. I just expected to be able to change it without too much of a drama, like you can on the iPhone. :)
Yeah it's definitely the title of it. Without installing another launcher or using method I described then I don't think there's away of changing the icon name.
 
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You could just transfer images from your PC over to your phone. I allows you to save images from your gallery as an icon

OK, that's great. Thanks. :)

Just one more thing for the moment, if I may - is it possible to view Tasks in the stock Calendar? They're in Outlook, and are definitely syncing, but remain invisible. They don't show in the Tasks app either. Been tearing my hair out on this one!
 
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And now something else. I've been searching for hours for this, but still haven't found a basic answer.

If I go to a website, then click the Menu > + button, I have an option to add the page to my Homescreen. That's great, and it produces the nice website favicon, rather than the stock Bookmarks icon.

The problem is, I want to rename that icon, because it just says 'Unread Posts' rather than the website name. Holding the icon doesn't give that option. I've been trying to find out where the icons are stored, so I can perhaps edit the name that way - does anyone know? Where is 'launcher data'? I don't want to install a third party launcher just for that - surely there's a easier way?

Hi, on my M7, using the stock browser, if I first of all save it to bookmarks I get the option to rename, then go into bookmarks and longpressing the renamed bookmark gives an option to 'add shortcut to home'.

:)
 
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I understand your concerns about syncing Outlook to the phone. When I first came to Android I felt the same thing. But, I came to realize that Google produced Android and designed it to work with their existing products. I tried several methods to sync but finally arrived at the following method. It needs a bit of attention to set up but works like a charm. Perhaps you have a reason not to want to use google calendar but I recommend using it.

1) Set up a gmail account. You don't have to use it for mail. Then set up syncing with the phone and the google calendar. Once that works, then step 2:

2) Now you need to sync Outlook to google. I use a program called gSyncit.
Fieldston Software - gSyncit - Sync Outlook and Google Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Tasks. This takes a bit of setting up but works great to sync to google.

3) Finally & to resolve the task question, I use Business Calendar Pro on the phone. It will sync to the calendar on the phone and has an add on for tasks that can be set to sync to google tasks. There are other apps that will also do this.

Yes, this seems like a long way to go to just do a simple sync but I find it is the best method to get it done. And, syncing to google is yet another backup of your records if something happens to the phone or PC so there's an advantage there. And backup first!
Dave
 
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I understand your concerns about syncing Outlook to the phone. When I first came to Android I felt the same thing. But, I came to realize that Google produced Android and designed it to work with their existing products. I tried several methods to sync but finally arrived at the following method. It needs a bit of attention to set up but works like a charm. Perhaps you have a reason not to want to use google calendar but I recommend using it.

1) Set up a gmail account. You don't have to use it for mail. Then set up syncing with the phone and the google calendar. Once that works, then step 2:

2) Now you need to sync Outlook to google. I use a program called gSyncit.
Fieldston Software - gSyncit - Sync Outlook and Google Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Tasks. This takes a bit of setting up but works great to sync to google.

3) Finally & to resolve the task question, I use Business Calendar Pro on the phone. It will sync to the calendar on the phone and has an add on for tasks that can be set to sync to google tasks. There are other apps that will also do this.

Yes, this seems like a long way to go to just do a simple sync but I find it is the best method to get it done. And, syncing to google is yet another backup of your records if something happens to the phone or PC so there's an advantage there. And backup first!
Dave

Thanks Dave. I do have a thing about Google, as I value my privacy, and I don't like giving it too much information. That is partly what's prevented me from using Android up to now. I'll give your advice some thought. :)
 
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Thanks Dave. I do have a thing about Google, as I value my privacy, and I don't like giving it too much information. That is partly what's prevented me from using Android up to now. I'll give your advice some thought. :)
I understand your trepidation. I feel the same way. But that's the way Android was designed to work. It does give you the freedom to work around most of Google, oft times via apps, but it takes work.

For example: Email. Use IMAP with other email providers. Use either the stock Email app (not Gmail, but Email), K-9 Mail, Blue Mail or whatever. Set Outlook up to use IMAP with the same service provider.

There are plenty of calendaring service providers, too. GoDaddy, for example, will sell you calendaring service for $10/year. $13/year for a group of five, $25/year for unlimited users. Add the CalDAV-Sync "conduit/connector" app to your Android device ($3) and Bob's your uncle. (I'm told MS Outlook can do DAViCal natively. I haven't tried it. I don't use MS anything.)

Contacts are a problem, tho. I don't know of a substitute contact server that you can use to keep Android devices and other things in-sync with one another.

In the end I decided to just compromise and give in to The Machine a bit. So Google "knows" all my contacts and my personal schedule? *shrug*

I do run my own mail server, and use Gmail only for app store related email. I don't use Google Drive, but Dropbox, instead. And even that doesn't get a copy of my encrypted digital keyring.
 
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I've also still got this issue with my Ford Audio. It connects to the phone Bluetooth, and calls work fine, but I can't get the phone to stream music via the Ford Audio. It scans for media devices, but doesn't see the Ford Audio for some reason. Any thoughts on that?
This is likely no help for you, but I have read the software that system runs has been problematical all along. That may be one reason for this: We Hear: Ford to Drop Microsoft for QNX on Future Versions of Sync

Contact your dealer and see if there's an update?
 
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This is likely no help for you, but I have read the software that system runs has been problematical all along. That may be one reason for this: We Hear: Ford to Drop Microsoft for QNX on Future Versions of Sync

Contact your dealer and see if there's an update?

OK, thanks. What's annoying is, it never worked with my iPhone either, so I was hoping it would with this phone. Have to say, the sound quality from the headphone jack on the HTC isn't as good as from the iPhone or iPod, hence, I was hoping the Bluetooth sound might be better. Typical for me to have a car stereo with which it doesn't work! :(
 
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What I actually get is the standard bookmark icon, with a small thumbnail of the favicon attached to the bottom right corner. I'd rather just have the favicon in full.

Yes, I do get the same thing on the odd bookmark/shortcut but the majority of mine are the full favicon shortcut. I assumed that was down to the favicon file info written in to the webpage by the page creator. I guess perhaps I've been lucky in that most of mine have the full favicon.

What I find frustrating is that there seems to be no consistency within or between different browsers in the way they handle the creation of bookmarks/shortcuts.

:)
 
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